Healthcare managers have a responsibility for the standard of their services and patient care delivered. Their work is thought to be essential in achieving and improving high quality care and patient safety. However, little is empirically known about their role in this. This thesis investigates acute care managerial work and impact in the context of quality of care and patient safety. It draws upon power and work-activity group theories and literature from other industries to guide investigation and elucidate findings. The introductory Chapters (Chapters 1-3) provide the background context of quality of care and patient safety, relevant management theory, and literature on the role of acute care managers in quality and safety. A systematic literature review in Chapter 4 illustrates a case for empirical research on this topic and suggests areas for further investigation. Chapters 5 and 6 report a case study investigation of the senior manager’s dimensions of involvement in a quality and safety improvement collaborative. These Chapters present self-reports of 17 Chief Executive Officers and 18 Medical Directors across 20 NHS hospitals on their actions and contributions to the UK Safer Patients Initiative (SPI). From this, a model of five principle dimensions of involvement emerged. Corroborating this model, Chapter 7 reports the staff perspective of their senior managements’ role in SPI, comprising interviews with 36 staff also involved in the SPI programme across the 20 hospitals.
To explore the work of the acute care middle manager in quality and patient safety, 36 interviews with general managers, service and divisional managers across two NHS Trusts and two specialities reveal their relevant training/learning, demands, choices and constraints (Chapter 8). This informed two follow up surveys that further quantified the interview findings and explored theoretical power and role constructs. The first survey presents the views of 100 middle managers from 10 NHS Trusts on their quality and safety-related time, learning, activities, power and impact (Chapter 9). The second survey reports 60 clinical staff views on the same items, illustrating some divergence on critical constructs (Chapter 10). The thesis closes with a final Chapter (Chapter 11) comprising a summary of the key findings per Chapter and the overarching themes from the thesis. Methodological limitations/strengths, wider implications for managers and policy makers, and future research are considered. The Chapter ends with concluding remarks on the critical work performed by acute care managers across organisational levels for the daily preservation of quality and patient safety and its improvement.